


Sin Rostro

by aparticularbandit



Series: Roisa Fic Week 2k19 [5]
Category: Jane the Virgin (TV)
Genre: 1920's AU, F/F, but i have a feeling this might GET dark, it's not super dark yet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 12:00:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20173900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aparticularbandit/pseuds/aparticularbandit
Summary: When her brother finds himself deep in gambling debt to the same mob boss who killed their father, Luisa offers herself up to work off what he owes.  Will she be able to navigate this world of crime with the help of Rose, one of the other girls trying to work off a debt?  Or will she fall in love with Sin Rostro just the same as Rose has?The first chapter fulfills the Period AU Prompt for Roisa Fic Week 2k19.





	Sin Rostro

**Author's Note:**

> This is rough. I understand this is rough. I meant to maybe hold off on this and give it a better more editing and etc. before posting and maybe not post it for fic week, but it came up and wanted to be written so--
> 
> This isn't the /first/ draft, but it's not a second write either. I understand that this is rough, and I apologize for that.
> 
> Also apologies that this is not a one-shot.

It was raining as Luisa walked the streets. Her dark hair lay straight and flat against her bronze skin, and her dress, which had seemed so pretty when she’d put it on earlier, clung to her skin so tight that she felt indecent. She shivered with the cold, one arm wrapping around herself. The nice thing about the rain was that it rinsed the blood from her fingers, even if it didn’t remove the stains from her dress. She could almost pretend that she was just walking the streets and trying to find her way back to the apartment that she shared with her brother.

Almost.

But instead of stopping in front of a tall brick building with too many tiny apartments crowded together, Luisa came to a stop in front of a thick wooden slab of a door at the end of a dark alley in the middle of the city. She shouldn’t be walking alone, not while it was dark out, not _here_. And yet, here she was.

_“Luisa!”_

_Rafael tried to grab her hand with his broken fingers and winced as his fingers cracked once more. His eyes were wild in his shattered face – his nose broken, the skin around his right eye already turning a deep purple, dried blood staining his lower lip. He struggled to sit up on the stretcher, but between the broken fingers and the broken arm, he could only keep himself up right so long before he fell back._

_“Raf, stop! You’re making it worse!” Luisa moved to his other side so that she could take his unbroken hand between her own and give it a gentle squeeze. Her eyes were wide as she looked him over, trying to make sense of things. “What happened?”_

_Raf’s dark eyes looked away from his sister, teeth gritting together. “I fell.” _

_She knew her brother well enough to know that he was lying. She also knew him well enough to know _why_._

_“How much do you owe him this time?”_

Luisa hesitated before knocking on the wooden slab of a door. It wasn’t long before she heard an answering knock. She followed the pattern she’d learned from her brother, from his attempts at practicing it before his gambling habit got them both into so much trouble. One to one, two to two, three to three, then one to two to one to one to three to two. Then the door opened just enough for her to see a black man on the other side, who said in a gravelly voice, “Password.”

“Any other name would smell as sweet.”

Her voice was soft, eyes lowered, but she looked up as she spoke the password, waiting for the door to open enough to let her in.

“Say that again.”

“_Any other name would smell as sweet._”

_Rafael’s voice was quiet as he repeated the line in front of the mirror, tightening his tie into place. He brushed a hand through his dark hair before he even noticed that Luisa was standing behind him, watching, and jumped as he turned and saw her waiting. “You’re going to give me a heart attack.”_

_“You’re being an idiot,” Luisa said, following him through their apartment. “Dad left more than enough for us to be well taken care of. You don’t have to—”_

_“Sin Rostro killed our father. This is the only way to get him to pay.”_

_Rafael’s voice boomed like her dad’s did when he was still alive, and Luisa could feel herself shudder. “If he killed Dad, then he knows who you are. You could be walking into a trap. I don’t want to lose you, too.”_

_“You’re not going to lose me.” Rafael leaned down enough to place both of his hands on both of Luisa’s shoulders. It was wrong. Their dad did that, not Raf. This was all wrong._

_“You can’t promise that.”_

_His hands left her shoulders, and he turned away. “What am I supposed to do, then? Just let him go?”_

_“Yeah.” The word was strained, but it was all she could get out. What else could she say?_

_Rafael’s teeth gritted together. “I can’t do that.”_

The black man held the door open and gestured for Luisa to come inside, shutting the door behind her and locking it as soon as she was inside. It was only then that he seemed to take in her soaked rat of an appearance. His expression softened. “You shouldn’t be here, missy. This isn’t a place for women like you.”

“I’m looking for Sin Rostro,” Luisa said, wringing the edge of her dress. A small puddle of water dripped onto the floor. “I’m here to pay a debt.”

“No,” the man said, shaking his head. “Not you, missy. You’ll be best getting out of here. People like us don’t belong in a place like this.”

“I know.” Luisa pulled her long hair between her hands, wringing it out as well, and the drops just added to the puddle she was leaving on the floor. From further back, there were sounds of sweet jazz in the lounge area, and if she looked long enough, she could see the craps table, another for poker, and two longer ones farther in the back for pool. But she didn’t want to focus on any of that. “Can you get him for me? Or send him a message? Tell him that Luisa Alver is here to pay off Rafael Solano’s debt.” She grinned, and even though it contained no happiness, she was certain that it still looked nice. “I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear that.”

* * *

_“Luisa, you can’t just—”_

_“You sound just like Dad.” Luisa sat next to her brother’s bedside. The doctor had left the room, to get nurses, maybe, although there wasn’t much any of them could do. She ran her hand through her hair. “Someone has to take care of this, and you obviously are no good for it.”_

_“Lu, I forbid you to—”_

_“You what?” She couldn’t stop the smile creeping across her face, couldn’t stop her lips from parting in a harsh bark of a laugh that ran away from her until tears dripped from her eyes. “I don’t think you have a choice.”_

_Rafael struggled to sit up again, and now that his arm was bound across his chest and his fingers taped together, he was able to make it up. “You don’t know what they’ll do to someone like you in a place like that.”_

_“No, Raf. I think I know _exactly_ what they’ll do.”_

Luisa shook her head, trying to get the thoughts of the conversation with her brother out of her mind. She took a deep breath as though to steady herself. The black man at the door had relayed a message to another one of the workers, one who she assumed was a higher up in the organization, and this one had led her to a door far in the back of the building. This far away, the jazz music was more a memory than an actual sound, but she clung to it as the last bit of her freedom. Maybe that was a bad idea. She was sure that she would hear more music in the future, and then maybe it would feel more like a cage.

“Sin Rostro will see you now.”

The man who had brought her here opened the door and ushered her inside before shutting her in alone with the mob boss.

Luisa hadn’t known what she expected, but somehow, this felt better than what she’d thought. The infamous Sin Rostro sat at a desk in the back of the room. All of the lights were off. Smoke filled enough of the room that she had trouble making out any distinctive shapes, even as she drew closer to the desk. She thought she could make out a mask of some sort – but even so, that was more comforting than she’d thought. No scars. Nothing terrifying, just…intimidating.

“You’re here to pay Rafael Solano’s debt?”

The voice wasn’t as low as she expected, but that was because Luisa was so used to her father’s booming deep voice, the one her brother had inherited from him. Luisa nodded before realizing that the mob boss probably couldn’t see her well enough to realize that’s what she was doing. “Yes. That’s right.”

“Do you have money?”

“No,” Luisa said, and her throat tightened. “I thought I would work it off.” She smiled, but it wasn’t a relaxed expression. “I believe I will fetch you more money than Rafael ever could.”

“You’re the girl,” Sin Rostro said, slowly standing. “The one he keeps with him all the time. The one Emilio bought to help raise him.”

Luisa didn’t correct him. It was the story their father had wanted spread. For her protection, he’d said, and when they were young, they’d believed him. It hadn’t taken long to realize that there wasn’t really much protection in this world. Not for people like her. Rafael kept her with him for the same reason, and here she was, offering herself up on a silver platter. Fat lot of good that protection had done.

And yet, here she was, continuing the lie.

“Do you want me or not?”

Sin Rostro didn’t say anything at first. Luisa imagined he was examining her, taking in how she looked, and she guessed that it was a good thing her dress was still so damp that it clung to her skin. He could see exactly what he was getting. Then he rang a bell and turned.

A door to the other side of the room opened, and a long-legged blonde entered the room. Sin Rostro nodded to her. “This is Petra. She runs my escort service and brothel. You will go with her, and she will get you set up.”

“Yes, sir.”

Petra gave Sin Rostro a cold stare and then gestured to Luisa to follow her, and without another thought on the matter, Luisa went with her.


End file.
